Author: Nada Jones
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Stone Crab People and Places, Key Largo to Key West
Stone crab season opened Oct. 15, and I followed the claws down the Overseas Highway. Key Largo first, on opening day at the Hills’ Eat Florida Seafood: traps on the dock, mesh bags going into the pot, claws coming out cooked over ice, a chalkboard of market goodies, and Teddy Dudley at the counter. Then…
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At Mile Marker 7, the People Who Stopped
When my daughter with Down syndrome rode her trike three miles the wrong way, Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies and Monroe County Fire Rescue treated her as the capable young woman she is. “I love my job, and I love being independent in Key West,” my daughter Laila told me. Laila was sitting in the shade…
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Florida Keys Cycling: Inside Key Largo’s All Keys Cycles Shop
In a Key Largo bike shop, airless-tire cruisers carry riders to Key West and back, screws stuck in their rubber and smiles on their faces. Amid rising e-bike insurance and staffing struggles, Steve Troeger keeps his rare Alibis rolling south.
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UF Family Weekend in Gainesville Sun: Beyond ‘The Swamp’
On UF Family Weekend, we drove up from Key Largo to see our freshman, Mira—and I spent the day reporting. From a packed bookstore and smoky tailgate to Gator Walk, a Peruvian food truck, and 90,683 fans in The Swamp, the people stole the show.
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Now nobody see me
Now nobody see me By Nada Khalaf-Jones KEY LARGO — On the RockStar Dance Studio lot at 101961 Overseas Highway, Yahuales Red Tacos sits where Overseas can miss it. The truck used to hold the lot’s edgecanopy up, fruit stand out, casting a warm light onto the sidewalk that caught anyone flying north or south.…
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Homestead rider Crystal Schnebly finds life lessons in the saddle
Combat medic, police officer, and South Florida rodeo rider Crystal Schnebly says her truest lessons came from the barn. Horses taught her to be present, value small improvements over perfection, redefine toughness as patience and self‑control, embrace career change, and keep showing up—one steady step at a time.
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A Wild Pokémon Has Appeared
Hours before the 30th anniversary Pokémon TCG launch, South Dade big-box stores fill with folding chairs, sleeping fans and quiet calculations. From invite-only Elite Trainer Boxes online to in-store waiting lists at Walmart, Target, Best Buy and GameStop, collectors map Miami like a circuit built on scarcity.
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From a balcony at Naranja Grand, a chance that already belongs to the people who got through the door
$115 million affordable community rises where an abandoned trailer park once sat; residents talk about welcome, dignity, and a home — not just a roof
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The Ocean in a Drop: Jessica Bartels’ Deep-Sea Calling
In the Florida Keys, an aquarist and educator builds a life of stewardship the scenic way — after learning what to refuse. BY: NADA KHALAF-JONES Special to The Free Press · ran Sep 3 2026 Story and photos by Nada Khalaf-Jones. As published in the Florida Keys Free Press, Sep 3 2026 (Pursuits / Features).…
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The Discipline of Hope on a Bleaching Reef
Another mass bleaching is slamming Florida Keys corals, pushing already battered elkhorn and staghorn reefs toward collapse. Scientists are racing to rescue surviving genotypes, cross-breed heat-tolerant “corals of the future,” and shield shorelines with living defenses. Their work can only buy time unless we urgently cut climate-warming emissions and keep restoration funded.
